2008.09.24
City Market restaurant inspections: Do not eat before you read this.
Well, the evidence is in. It's not a pretty picture.
The health department released reports from the latest inspections of the Roanoke City Market Building's 10 restaurants on Tuesday. What emerges is not the image of a small rodent issue. Mouse "excreta" - poop to us regular folks - was found in essentially every corner and every stall of the building.
The building was shut down and all its vendors' licenses suspended after a health department inspection Friday. Read the reports yourselves here. Links are on the left side of the page about half-way down.
Some had worse problems than others.
From the report on Tavern on the Market, for example:
"Observed sliced cheese covered with large numbers of rodent excreta pellets (>20). Observed what appeared to be a rodent gnawed hole in the package of cheese...Observed a rodent excreta pellet inside a package of sliced deli meat."
A dead mouse seen under the sink during Sept. 11 inspection was still there on Sept. 16.
Mouse pellets seemed to be everywhere, and often in close proximity to food and food preparation areas.
At Paradiso, on metal shelves where containers and bowls are stored.
At Burger in the Square, on a counter near the sandwich press.
At Hong Kong, on top of unprotected single-service items in an open box.
At Chico's, on a shelf directly above counter with exposed pizza dough.
Under just about every sink, counter and refrigerator in the building.
As if that isn't enough evidence of a full-bore infestation, at Chico's, "a live mouse as observed in the dishwashing area ... and ran across the Environmental Health Specialist's foot during the inspection."
Beyond that, pretty much every restaurant space was cited for being in poor repair and/or in need of cleaning.
In sum, it's a portrait of a place with issues far more serious than need of a "Fall Cleaning."
Several questions come to mind.
How did it get this bad without intervention before now?
Will the Market Building ever really return in its old incarnation? Reputations of individual restaurants and the place as a whole are damaged by now. Can they recover without a wholesale makeover of the place that erases from the public's minds the image now in everyone's minds?
Will parties who want to overhaul not only the building, but its function, seize the opportunity here push through their agenda? Or maybe the question is only how aggressively they will seize it.
What does this do for the bargaining position of the restaurant owners, long in fear of losing their livelihoods due to changes to the Market Building and trying to hang on?
What about the lost income of not only the owners themselves, but the hourly wage workers who prep and serve the food in many of those restaurants?
And finally, who is to blame? Some resist that question, say it doesn't matter at this point, but this is a big, big problem, folks. A taxpayer owned building managed by the city has been exposed as a significant health hazard. Personal health, community health, and the livelihood of many business owners were and are at risk.
It's costing taxpayers money, owners and workers their income, and causing damage to the reputations of everyone involved, including the city.
It's far from a blameless situation.
Im very disgusted by the findings of the health dept. But what I want to know is if this has been a problem for a certain period of time then why has the city of Roanoke done something about it I mean they are the owners of the property correct if so we all know that legally speaking they should be held responsible for the cleaning and the reimbursement of monies lost and potential loss of future business monies for slandering the owners of the establishments.But maybe this is just a smart legal way to evict the current tenants in the building so the city can do what it needs to do bring the building up to par.As a relestate investor I know that the quickest and easiest way to remove a tenant and do it legaly is to have the property condemed or in this case have the board of health have it condemed.But who knows is this a conspiracy or is it the real fact, either way who ever is responsible it is most assuradly a problem that has scared my image of the food court and definatly the city of Raonke, and my oppinion does count because i am a consumer. Respectfully Chris
Comment by Chris — September 24, 2008 @ 4:51 pm
I grew up in the Roanoke Valley, during a time when two legged vermin had overrun the Market. I've seen it change, and clean up and become a beautiful place to gather. I'm hoping that the same will come true for the Food Court... where were the inspectors before now? This isn't something that has occurred overnight...will I eat there next time I come to town??? I can't honestly answer that...it will be a wait and see situation.
Comment by Madeline — September 25, 2008 @ 12:01 am
As landlords, the city is to blame, but why didn't the tenants do more? If the city did nothing when the problem was first reported to them, then why didn't the vendors band together and make a big stink about it? Stopping it at the beginning would have been far less damaging to their reps, then just letting it go and doing nothing.
Comment by Debbie — September 25, 2008 @ 12:39 pm
I work downtown and stopped eating in that building two years ago when on my young son came running out of the men’s room wide-eyed because a homeless man was stripped to his under clothes, taking a sponge bath and washing his clothes in the sink. I'm not sure but I thought had heard that Roanoke City had some sort of ban on franchises coming to the Market. I agree it takes some of the quaintness away when but the franchises at least have some internal polices in place to keep things clean an organized. Another thing…I would be very interested in knowing if these vendors ever complained to the City about the infestation and what response they received......Maybe it's not just the vendors who need to be investigated??
Comment by Crystal — September 25, 2008 @ 12:41 pm
Debbie,
I think the blame falls on both parties. Reading the health inspection reports gives me the impression that the problem has been going on for some time, and I get the impression that contamination has been going on for some time as well. At that point, seeing that the city was not taking the lead, a respectable restaurant owner, in my opinion, would have shut down.
The captain of the plane can blame lack of maintenance on the owners or ground crew, and rightly so. But it's his sinking ship should he choose to fly it anyway.
Comment by Ed S. — September 25, 2008 @ 2:35 pm
Why would anyone ever want to eat anything these vendors prepared again. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know to get rid of a dead mouse and put some soap and water on the equipment. Not to mention using a broom occasionly. Those places were filthy. I have worked in restaurants and grocery stores where employees were required to clean EVERY day even if we had to stay over time. I think these people are just pigs.
Comment by Sue — September 25, 2008 @ 3:22 pm
You're right Ed, and it's a shame that this happened. It's disgusting and sad that no one did anything before now.
Comment by Debbie — September 25, 2008 @ 6:00 pm
Let's see...the city will probably commission yet another study that they will ignore as much as they and the vendors ignored the unsanitary conditions which obviously have been going on for a while. Reading the reports does not have the same effect as seeing the pictures. Disgusting! Maybe they should call Chef Ramsey to come in with his Kitchen Nightmares and do a complete makeover....
Comment by Roanoke RnR — September 26, 2008 @ 8:31 am
i am sickened that the preparers of my food would have such disregard for the public that have faithfully supported them. my daughter and other members of my family eat at the market building often because of the variety offered. i could never again look paradiso or zorba in the face again to order my food. again, money is the bottom line, over conscience, i have to ask, were they able to eat the same food offered us?i am certain they have lost many faithful customers, including my self and my family members. yuck!!
Comment by rosemary — September 26, 2008 @ 10:41 am
I used to stop in the market just about any time I made it to downtown Roanoke because I enjoyed the food, the vendors, and the atmosphere there. After taking a closer look at the health reports from the VDH, I will not return, even with fixing the mouse problems. It's inexcusible that the vendors apparently did not push the issue with the city (or if they did, it wasn't noticed very much). But what really concerns me, more than the rodent issue, are the repeated violations of basic food handling, storage, and prep safety standards that were rampant through several vendors. I had often seen these things and it gave me brief pause about eating there...but seeing that they kept happening despite warnings and write-ups...it makes me sick. To have a violation happen and then fix the problem (through education & training ro fixing equipment) is one thing, but getting told and still doing it wrong is another. It goes to complete disregard for the health and well-being of the customers, and I won't forget that...and I won't go back. What i would love to see is a posted scoring system like North Carolina has, so all food vendors, restaurants, and other food service locations have to post their inspection ratings and scores for all to see. That would encourage a cleaned-up set of behaviors in these places in a short amount of time.
Comment by Other John — September 26, 2008 @ 11:33 am
What's next the Texas Tavern? Not much better.
Comment by Don — September 26, 2008 @ 12:27 pm
It's not just the Market Building. Over the last few days, I've taken the time to look through almost every restaurant in the area. Almost every one has critcial violations and, in many cases, they are repeated.
Of course, most of the violations are the same sort that can happen in your own home. I don't know anyone who always washes their hands before, during and after preparing a meal... or wearing gloves while they do it. And I can't count the number of times I've watched family reunions, picnics and the like where food sits out on a table at an incorrect holding temperature, while flies hover around the uncovered items. Worse yet are the parents who change their children's diapers, then go make a sandwich.
Honestly, people. If you really read the reports for every single vendor there, then, by now, you've realized most of them aren't grotesque pits of gastro-doom. I'd bet money that every single person who has commented on how disgusting 'every vendor' is, has been guilty of at least one of the situations listed in the above paragraph.
My suggestion... if you read through all the VDH reports, don't discount every vendor when it comes to returning to the building. Eat at the ones who actually have decent track records, the ones who fix issues or have easily corrected issues. That's what I plan to do.
Comment by Matt — September 26, 2008 @ 2:17 pm
I've eaten at these places, everyone in my family has and no one has gotten sick. If you read the reports, like Zorba's their only violation was mice. It may not have been their fault, the building is open and if one person has food out that attracts mice everyone alse will get mice even if their stations are clean.
If the place is cleaned up and reopened I will come back without a doubt.
I think the city is at fault, they spend too much on making the city "look better" by putting things like those annoying obsticals between lanes like on Willimson rd. They use the money and time for things like that instead of keeping up with the important things
Comment by M — September 26, 2008 @ 11:56 pm
If the city (the entity that owns the market building) would have kept up with monthly exterminations like they should have this would not have happened. Seems ironic that this only came to light after construction started on buildings close by. Once you stir up the nests the mice have to go somewhere. I've eaten at the food court since it opened and have NEVER gotten sick. I've never seen a rodent or a bug in all these years. Come on and fess up city council - this is a "sabotage" plain and simple. And I feel for the vendors who are being made to look like the bad guys. When it is the city who is behind the black curtain pulling all the strings.
Comment by K — October 1, 2008 @ 9:41 am
I've heard it said that rules help define a civilization; perhaps local food handlers adhering to some basic standards (the same ones we expect McDonalds to adhere to!) is not a bad idea for Roanoke's civilization. My family and I try to support local business always, but the food court merchants' blatent disregard for the safety of what we're buying from them AND PUTTING IN OUR BODIES is absolutely unacceptable. I doubt that a fresh coat of paint will entice us to eat there again, I'm very sorry to say
Comment by Brenda — October 3, 2008 @ 8:31 am